Beyond the West; Reconceptualizing Spatial Justice for Marginalized Groups in Ethnocratic Regimes: The case on Eelam Tamils in the North-East of Sri Lanka

Over the last half-century, social scientists, political-geographers, urban planners, and architects have theorized on how we must proceed in the quest for justice, and more recently, spatial justice. Contemporary and post-industrial theorization has led to a communicative turn (Yiftachel, 2006) in planning theorization in the realm of justice; collaborative, inclusive and justice planning, as well as spatial justice theories, have attempted to assist practitioners, decision-makers and academics to operationalize and promote inclusivity, redistribution and procedural reform through planning processes (Soja, 2010).

However, this planning theorization largely stems from liberal ideals of democracy that are unable to address complex layers of conflict, oppressive power, and imposition (Miraftab, 2017). This debate asks the question, if these planning frameworks truly serve and represent a diverse intersection of a given populations’ conditions (Angotti, 2008; Miraftab, 2003,2007; Watson, 2009). This tension between planning theory and context specificity is a growing concern in the non-Western parts of the world (Souza, 2007; Malathy, 2012; Watson, 2009,2012; Miraftab, 2017,2009; Yiftachel, 2006), where spatial conflicts based on race, gender, ethnicity become the core of how injustices are perpetuated, in which dominating justice related planning (Purcell 2009) theory falls short of addressing.

This is increasingly problematic and relevant within today's political geography of our world, where the dialectic of power and ethnicity through space have shaped it significantly (Yiftachel, 2008). Oren Yiftachel describes this phenomenon as the rise of ethnocracy, a regime under which a dominant ethnic group appropriates the state apparatus and shapes most public policies (Ibid). Firstly, this paper aims to define the landscape of spatial justice and critically survey how scholars of planning theory, particularly of non-Western origins, have suggested reconceptualizing Western dominating planning theory. Second, this paper aims to explore possible alternatives of how spatial justice and planning theory can operate within ethnocratic regimes and geographies of conflict. And, departing from the case of Eelam Tamils in the North-East of Sri Lanka and particular ethnocratic characteristics, notions of spatial justice can be reconceptualized and contextualized to better equip practitioners, decision and policymakers, and academics within the realm of spatial justice and planning. To ultimately, suggest new directions on theory and practice, to help contextualize spatial justice within conditions of ethnocracy and conflict.